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This guide will help you understand the video features Battlestar Wiki employs, how it works, and why it does the things it does.
Video Feature
For the most part, Battlestar Wiki uses Hulu for its video content, because Hulu is authorized by the copyright holder to use the content online. (To compare: YouTube, Veoh, and other video sharing services often host content without permission and against copyright law, and are thus usually issued DMCA take down orders on video clips as a result.)
We've received requests over the years to host video content, but have had to reject the notion until the advent of Hulu. It is with great pleasure that we've been able to make use of their content embedding feature on the Wiki.
How does it work?
Typically, videos are linked to important pages. Namely the episode guide and other major articles. (See the "Noteworthy Dialogue" section of "Saga of a Star World" for an example.) Typically, such content is flanked by an icon (presently a "speaker", though we aim to change that to something like a TV set), like the following example:
- Adama: Forgive me, Mr. President, but they hate us with every fiber of their existence. We love freedom. We love independence–to feel, to question, to resist oppression. To them, it's an alien way of existing they will never accept.
By clicking on the icon, or the hyperlinked text, you will be directed to a page that has this video.
Playing the Video
The controls are fairly intuitive. When the page finishes loading, you'll see a big button in the center of the video screen that looks like a sideways pyramid (otherwise known as the play button).
Once you click that, the video will begin to load. Typically, there's a small commercial (less than 10 seconds) before the clip actually plays, but that's the cost of avoiding a DMCA takedown leter.
Once the clip is done, you can typically replay the clip, share the clip with friends, and get additional information on the clip via Hulu.
Issues
Unfortunately, Hulu is region-specific. That means that if you have an IP from an overseas country where Hulu is not authorized to play content, you'll get a message saying so.
Also, from time to time, a clip may "die". Therefore, you are asked to post a message on the clip's talk page or simply notify a chief of the issue.